THE National Electrification Administration (NEA) said electric cooperatives (ECs) are working on a program to subsidize the electricity needs of poor consumers following the two-week extension of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
“To show solidarity in dealing with this crisis, the electric cooperatives are exploring all means to continuously deliver electricity services to their respective consumers, as well as mitigate the cost of electric consumption by accessing funds for the design and implementation of Pantawid Liwanag Program,” Edgardo Masongsong, NEA administrator, said in a statement.
The program is intended to benefit poor electricity consumers in the countryside whose primary sources of income and livelihoods have been severely disrupted by the ECQ, he said.
Earlier, NEA also endorsed the appeal of ECs to extend the deadline of their payment of dues and remittances to power generation and transmission companies indefinitely, or until the state of their business operations normalizes.
Masongsong said the request was expressed through an official correspondence with the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), as the collection efficiency of ECs dropped sharply amid the ECQ.
In his letter, the NEA chief asked both DOE Secretary Alfonso Cusi and ERC Chairperson Agnes Devanadera to extend the payment period not just for 30 days after April 14, 2020, but until such time that the operations of the ECs have normalized and stabilized.
Based on its latest monitoring, NEA said over 90 ECs in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao have provided consumers a 30-day grace period to settle their electricity bills, on top of the cancellation of surcharges and power disconnections for those who failed to pay on time.
Masongsong also said the request of ECs to invoke the force majeure event provision in their power supply agreements is being mulled, as they cannot fully utilize the contracted capacity rate during the crisis period when demand is only coming from residential customers due to closure of big establishments.
This is in addition to the steps already taken by power distribution utilities such as payment extension to electricity consumers and the cancellation of surcharges on late payments and power disconnections for consumers who failed to pay on time.
Still, NEA urges all ECs to remit a proportional amount collected from electricity users that are payable to their power suppliers, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp., and the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines.
As a supervisory body to 121 ECs nationwide, NEA regularly monitors distribution system parameters such as systems loss and reliability, circuit kilometers and substation capacity to ensure that they remain operationally reliant and technically efficient in delivering service to their member-consumers. It is also mandated to implement the total electrification of the country.
